1919 Chicago White Sox season

The 1919 Chicago White Sox season was their 19th season in the American League. They won 88 games to advance to the World Series but lost to the Cincinnati Reds. More significantly, some of the players were found to have taken money from gamblers in return for throwing the series. The "Black Sox Scandal" had permanent ramifications for baseball, including the establishment of the office of Commissioner of Baseball.

1919 Chicago White Sox
American League champions
League	American League
Ballpark	Comiskey Park
City	Chicago, Illinois
Owners	Charles Comiskey
Managers	Kid Gleason
← 1918 Seasons 1920 →

Regular season

1919 Chicago White Sox team photo

In 1919, Eddie Cicotte led the majors with 29 wins and 30 complete games, going 29–7 for the season with a 1.82 ERA (2nd in AL) and 110 strikeouts (7th in AL). He also led the AL in innings pitched with 240 (shared with Washington Senators pitcher Jim Shaw).

Right fielder Joe Jackson hit .351 (4th in AL) with 7 home runs, 96 RBIs (3rd in AL) and had 181 hits (3rd in AL, only 10 fewer than league leader Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers). Shoeless Joe headed an offense that scored the most runs of any team.

Season standings

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American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Chicago White Sox	88	52	.629	—	48‍–‍22	40‍–‍30
Cleveland Indians	84	55	.604	3½	44‍–‍25	40‍–‍30
New York Yankees	80	59	.576	7½	46‍–‍25	34‍–‍34
Detroit Tigers	80	60	.571	8	46‍–‍24	34‍–‍36
St. Louis Browns	67	72	.482	20½	40‍–‍30	27‍–‍42
Boston Red Sox	66	71	.482	20½	35‍–‍30	31‍–‍41
Washington Senators	56	84	.400	32	32‍–‍40	24‍–‍44
Philadelphia Athletics	36	104	.257	52	21‍–‍49	15‍–‍55

Record vs. opponents

1919 American League record v t e Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	9–11	4–15	9–11	10–9	14–6	9–10–1	11–9
Chicago	11–9	—	12–8	11–9	12–8	17–3	11–9	14–6
Cleveland	15–4	8–12	—	8–12	13–7	16–4	11–9	13–7
Detroit	11–9	9–11	12–8	—	8–12	14–6	14–6	12–8
New York	9–10	8–12	7–13	12–8	—	18–2	12–8	14–6–2
Philadelphia	6–14	3–17	4–16	6–14	2–18	—	7–13	8–12
St. Louis	10–9–1	9–11	9–11	6–14	8–12	13–7	—	12–8
Washington	9–11	6–14	7–13	8–12	6–14–2	12–8	8–12	—

Roster

1919 Chicago White Sox
Roster
Pitchers Joe Benz Eddie Cicotte Dave Danforth Red Faber Bill James Dickey Kerr Grover Lowdermilk Erskine Mayer Tom McGuire Win Noyes Pat Ragan Charlie Robertson Reb Russell Frank Shellenback John Sullivan Roy Wilkinson Lefty Williams		Catchers Joe Jenkins Byrd Lynn Ray Schalk Infielders Eddie Collins Chick Gandil Hervey McClellan Fred McMullin Swede Risberg Buck Weaver		Outfielders Shano Collins Happy Felsch Joe Jackson Nemo Leibold Eddie Murphy		Manager Kid Gleason

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Ray Schalk	131	394	111	.282	0	34
1B	Chick Gandil	115	441	128	.290	1	60
2B	Eddie Collins	140	518	165	.319	4	80
3B	Buck Weaver	140	571	169	.296	3	75
SS	Swede Risberg	119	414	106	.256	2	38
LF	Joe Jackson	139	516	181	.351	7	96
CF	Happy Felsch	135	502	138	.275	7	86
RF	Nemo Leibold	122	434	131	.302	0	26

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Shano Collins	63	179	50	.279	0	4
Fred McMullin	60	170	50	.294	0	19
Byrd Lynn	29	66	15	.227	0	4
Eddie Murphy	30	35	17	.486	0	5
Joe Jenkins	11	19	3	.158	0	1
Hervey McClellan	7	12	4	.333	0	1

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Eddie Cicotte	40	306.2	29	7	1.82	110
Lefty Williams	41	297.0	23	11	2.64	125
Dickey Kerr	39	212.1	13	7	2.88	79
Red Faber	25	162.1	11	9	3.83	45
Win Noyes	1	6.0	0	0	7.50	4
Charlie Robertson	1	2.0	0	1	9.00	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Grover Lowdermilk	20	96.2	5	5	2.79	43
Bill James	5	39.1	3	2	2.52	11
Frank Shellenback	8	35.0	1	3	5.14	10
Erskine Mayer	6	23.2	1	3	8.37	9
Roy Wilkinson	4	22.0	1	1	2.05	5
John Sullivan	4	15.0	0	1	4.20	9

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Dave Danforth	15	1	2	1	7.78	17
Joe Benz	1	0	0	0	0.00	0
Tom McGuire	1	0	0	0	9.00	0
Pat Ragan	1	0	0	0	0.00	0
Reb Russell	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Awards and honors

League top ten finishers

Eddie Cicotte

• MLB leader in wins (29)
• MLB leader in complete games (30)
• Equal AL leader in innings pitched (240)
• #2 in AL in ERA (1.82)
• #2 in AL in shutouts (5)
• #7 in AL in strikeouts (110)

Happy Felsch

• #6 in AL in RBI (86)

Joe Jackson

• #3 in AL in RBI (96)
• #3 in AL in hits (181)
• #4 in AL in batting average (.351)
• #4 in AL in on-base percentage (.422)
• #4 in AL in triples (14)
• #5 in AL in slugging percentage (.506)

Buck Weaver

• #4 in AL in runs scored (89)
• #7 in AL in stolen bases (22)
• #7 in AL in hits (169)

Lefty Williams

• #2 in AL in shutouts (5)
• #2 in AL in complete games (27)
• #3 in AL in wins (23)
• #3 in AL in strikeouts (125)
• #9 in AL in ERA (2.64)

1919 World Series

Main article: 1919 World Series

NL Cincinnati Reds (5) vs. AL Chicago White Sox (3)

Game	Score	Date	Location	Attendance
1	Chicago White Sox – 1, Cincinnati Reds – 9	October 1	Redland Field	30,511
2	Chicago White Sox – 2, Cincinnati Reds – 4	October 2	Redland Field	29,690
3	Cincinnati Reds – 0, Chicago White Sox – 3	October 3	Comiskey Park	29,126
4	Cincinnati Reds – 2, Chicago White Sox – 0	October 4	Comiskey Park	34,363
5	Cincinnati Reds – 5, Chicago White Sox – 0	October 6	Comiskey Park	34,379
6	Chicago White Sox – 5, Cincinnati Reds – 4 (10 innings)	October 7	Redland Field	32,006
7	Chicago White Sox – 4, Cincinnati Reds – 1	October 8	Redland Field	13,923
8	Cincinnati Reds – 10, Chicago White Sox – 5	October 9	Comiskey Park	32,930

Black Sox Scandal

Main article: Black Sox Scandal

The Black Sox Scandal refers to a number of events that took place around and during the play of the 1919 World Series. The name "Black Sox" also refers to the Chicago White Sox team from that era. Eight members of the Chicago franchise were banned from baseball for throwing (intentionally losing) games.

The Fix

The conspiracy was the brainchild of White Sox first baseman Arnold "Chick" Gandil and Joseph "Sport" Sullivan, who was a professional gambler of Gandil's acquaintance. New York gangster Arnold Rothstein supplied the major connections needed. The money was supplied by Abe Attell, former featherweight boxing champion, who accepted the offer even though he didn't have the $80,000 that the White Sox wanted.

Gandil enlisted seven of his teammates, motivated by a mixture of greed and a dislike of penurious club owner Charles Comiskey, to implement the fix. Starting pitchers Eddie Cicotte and Claude "Lefty" Williams, outfielders "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Oscar "Happy" Felsch, and infielder Charles "Swede" Risberg were all involved. Buck Weaver was also asked to participate, but refused; he was later banned with the others for knowing of the fix but not reporting it. Utility infielder Fred McMullin was not initially approached but got word of the fix and threatened to report the others unless he was in on the payoff. Sullivan and his two associates, Sleepy Bill Burns and Billy Maharg, somewhat out of their depth, approached Rothstein to provide the money for the players, who were promised a total of $100,000.

Stories of the "Black Sox" scandal have usually included Comiskey in its gallery of subsidiary villains, focusing in particular on his intentions regarding a clause in Cicotte's contract that would have paid Cicotte an additional $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games. According to Eliot Asinof's account of the events, Eight Men Out, Cicotte was "rested" for the season's final two weeks after reaching his 29th win, presumably to deny him the bonus. In reality, however, Cicotte started the White Sox's last game of the season, September 28th against the Tigers. But, with a 1-0 Chicago lead, Chicago manager Kid Gleason took Cicotte out of the game following the second inning, which assured Cicotte could not get his 30th win.

External links

• 1919 Chicago White Sox at Baseball Reference